PAEAN TO MY HOMETOWN

I grew up in Manhattan. I ♥️ New York. On September 11, 2001, I had already lived in Seattle for 10 years, but felt the terrorist attacks as a gut punch. It was the worst day of my life. My family was all safe, but I grieved for the thousands lost in the World Trade Center and the irrevocable change to our lives. I didn’t intend this piece to be a 9/11 memorial – I started it in the spring, as a fun project on a subway map my mom sent me. Once September was here, and the 20 year anniversary, I knew I needed to finish it as a tribute to the city that has endured, rising, despite death and destruction. The mixed media subway map, with New York Times and gelli plate collage, now sits on framed canvas and has a sooty bus map border, and the abstract subway-line pathways extend past the border to points afar. I listened to Carly Simon’s “Let the River Run” a lot when I was working on this, and will say that I cannot watch the end of the movie “Working Girl” without weeping, when the camera pans up and off to the distance, with the silver Twin Towers shining in the sunrise.